doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Off-Face -- When is it bad enough to fix?

Steve,

See your location is Boulder, CO. Looked at your price list and see charge for putting barrels "back on face" is USD300, minimum. Do I presume correctly that charge is for TIG welding additional metal to hook and then fitting it to hinge pin?

Thanks,
Niklas

Niklas,
that is correct. I charge more for building a new pin, engraving, etc. I have few guns around the shop right now that have been tigged, and one with a new hinge pin. Stop by if you care to see them.
Steve

B Frech,

On the presumption that this old Husqvarna shoots like expected, I will be seriously assessing doing a repair as you describe.

Actually, this is first of the nice old Husqvarnas I have bought that needed any repairs at all. Perhaps because all but one were heavily used by hunters back in Sweden, and kept well repaired. Conversely, every Sauer, Merkel or Carl Stiegle club-owned gun I have bought has need one repair to make it excellent shooter - maybe that is why they were club-guns. In the field, they all handle and shoot much the same and I don't see any difference in my trap or SC scores or number of birds brought home.

Niklas

From what I can tell by this conversation, replacing the hinge pin is the correct way to do the work, but some feel that welding, soldering or gluing to be easier. As the military says, if it is the easy way, it probibly is not the right way.
Thomas Bland makes their guns with removeable hinge pins, so that the pin can be replaced when wear occurs.They do not have a removeable dovetail in the barrel hinge point, or equip the gun with a bottle of BlackMax. I do use shims, to find out what size to make my hinge pins. My guns fire like new,I do not change the temper of the metal in the hinge point, and I do not worry about the glue coming loose at a bad moment.
If I had a customer that I repaired his gun, he went to Argentina to shoot dove, and the glue came loose, he would probibly use the gun on me.

Gunsmith,

I have always considered replacing the hingepin as basic, correct repair and have done so on one gun, long ago. This would be especially done if gun is going to be used heavily and/or on expensive hunts -- but, I have solid, newer guns that fill those needs well. I also have other older guns that I greatly enjoy shooting and hunting with, especally on one-day trips -- these are generally old Husqvarna hammer doubles, both top and underlevers. If this gun fills this latter ticket well, then it has been worth all money paid and time spent cleaning it.

Actually, I wonder how many posters and lurkers here would take any 117 year old gun on a hunt where it would be used so severely as on Argentina dove shoot -- Even one made of good Swedish or German fluid steel made with 1880s technology, but intended for 1880s-1890s shotshells. This gun has already been through an unknown number of shotshells of unknown loading, at least enough in the aggregate to have gotten it off face about 0,003 inches. It is ready for a solid repair (but not necessarily expensive) and a diet of lower pressure loads. Even on multiday bird hunts with old doubles, I take a spare along. One can finish a day's hunt with a double that suddenly became a single shot.

Niklas

Ya gotta be kiddin. .001 gap makes a gun off face? I'll remember that next time I'm buying a gun & want to diss it to get its price down.

Gunsmith,

As I have written before, replacing the pin is not the standard of care. The pin is not likely to wear, given its hardness. The hook is the point of wear, and the point of repair. Pushing out a pin, boring oversize, fabricating a pin, hardening, pressing a pin in, engraving and coloring is not the practical or practiced repair. You folk must speak with some smiths that do this frequently. They dovetail the hook.

Phil

Phil, could you define exactly what you mean by "the standard of care". If you had a Purdey, H&H, or Boss that was off face would you expect the respective makers to suggest cutting a dovetail into the hook? To cut a set of stress risers into barrels that cost big bucks? I think most knowledgeable folks would be outraged at such a Rube Goldberg, Jerry built, and to mix metaphors, haimes of a job.
npm

Spud,

You have clearly not read my posts, and I would assume that you've never had a gun put back on face. Please get back to me when you've aquired some experience.

Phil

Cherry,

Take the forend off and shake the gun. You'll feel .001 every time. Remember that by this point in the wear cycle the barrels are far enough away from the standing breach to allow the bolt to firmly clamp the barrel flats to the watertable. There is no longer any springspace and the barrels pound against the standing breach with every shot. The gun hammers itself apart, in short order.

Phil